Tag Archive:
applications

In this post, law school admissions expert Anna Ivey answers a student’s question about reapplying to law school following an academic dismissal.

Student: “I completed one year of law school in May 2017. However, I was academically dismissed due to poor test results. Currently, I am taking a year off from law school, but I am determined to complete law school and become an attorney. I am strongly considering retaking the LSAT before reapplying.”

As we head into September, those of you planning on attending law school next fall should be putting together your application materials. This post is designed to cover another facet of law school applications: the explanatory essay. For those of you keeping score at home, we’ve covered letters of recommendation, the personal statement, and the academic index. Those topics are all universally applicable, whereas the explanatory essay may not play a role in everyone’s application process.

In a day, the number of law schools accepting the GRE in lieu of the LSAT doubled. Monday, Georgetown and Northwestern law schools announced that they would begin to accept the GRE. Harvard and Arizona were already there, so that makes four law schools.

Did you hear that applications to Hofstra University’s law school have nearly doubled in a year? No? Well, it’s true. Of course, it’s fallacious to assume that one law school on Long Island is representative of what’s happening in general — I’d argue it’s generally a bad idea to extrapolate from Long Island to the

LSAC, that bastion of prelaw-related data, recently released application numbers the 2014-15 law school cycle. The results are in, and law school applications continue to fall. The number of law school applicants is down 2.5% from this time last year, and the number of applications is down 4.7%. Law school hopefuls applied to an average of six schools each.

Although those percentages may seem small, it’s notable because the number of people considering law school – including those taking the LSAT, those applying to law schools, and those actually enrolling – has been in a freefall for the past five years or so. Law schools, which are increasingly feeling the financial pinch as fewer folks break their piggy banks to go to law school, are responding by reducing class sizes and cutting faculty.

If you just finished taking the June LSAT, congratulations! No matter how it went, getting through the test is a big accomplishment and you should be proud of yourself.

Alright, enough back-patting. Let’s talk about the next steps. There are only two options at this point if you’re still planning on going to law school: either you will retake the LSAT, or you will use your score to apply to schools.

For those of you in the first boat, the first battle is going to be overcoming the apathy. I would recommend taking some time off to recharge your batteries; jumping right back into serious test preparation mode could lead to burnout.

A) Above the Law has some sample LSAT questions that will quiz your exam knowledge ahead of test day — and your desire to go to law school.

B) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: If that first link makes you question the wisdom of attending law school but doesn’t deter you from becoming a lawyer, here’s how you can do that without a J.D. About Careers

C) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: If that first link doesn’t make you question the wisdom of attending law school, here’s how to make an application schedule. Pen and Chisel

D) According to new research, Sonia Sotomayor is the biggest celebrity on the Supreme Court. I call B.S. — there’s no way the Notorious RBG should be fourth. Wall Street Journal

E) Medium just realized that a bunch of 80’s movie villains were right all along — here’s to you Iceman, Mr. Rooney, Judge Reinhold and more.

D) The Senate has only approved two judicial nominees this year, and [sarcasm font] I frankly can’t believe that Washington politicians are being slow and irascible. [/sarcasm font] Wall Street Journal